Second chance to sign

The Astros have expressed interest in the possibility of drafting any of three highly rated talents whom they selected in the 2007 draft but didn't sign.

Derek Dietrich, Brett Eibner and Chad Bettis all signed releases authorizing the Astros to draft them. Players drafted by a club and not signed cannot be drafted later without consent because of the possibility of bad blood between the parties.

“We've reached out and re-established relationships with the three players,” assistant general manager and scouting director Bobby Heck said. “They're all players that we do have interest in. We've continued the evaluation process.”

Dietrich, the Astros' third-round pick in 2007 (but their first pick in that draft) couldn't come to terms with the Astros and went to Georgia Tech. Fourth-rounder Eibner from The Woodlands is a two-way star at Arkansas and is projected to go in the first round. Bettis, drafted in the eighth round, is pitching for Texas Tech.

Owner Drayton McLane has no qualms about redrafting any of the players who could not reach a contract agreement three years ago.

“That decision is going to be made by Ed Wade,” McLane said. “I have never influenced the draft. I don't know them.”

The draft will begin Monday night with the Astros possessing the Nos. 8, 19 and 33 picks overall.

“That's unfortunate,” Bourn said. “I guess he didn't (have) the connection that he had with the previous AD. I don't know, don't have the inside track on that.

“I will say that I wish the best for coach Noble and his family; I know his family, too.”

Bourn described Noble as a hard-nosed coach whom he enjoyed playing for.

“He always wanted to get the best out of you,” Bourn said. “I like that.”

The news also surprised Lance Berkman, whom Noble helped recruit at Rice before taking the helm at UH in 1994.

“He's been such a big part of the Houston baseball community for such a long time that it is surprising,” Berkman said. “It's kind of like Bragg Stockton or something like that who has a name and is associated with the University of Houston.

“To think of him not being the head coach there is going to be strange.”

Stranded during streak

Talk about room for improvement.

The Astros entered the series with the Cubs winners of three straight, but the fact they left 29 on base during the stretch — which included two come-from-behind victories — was not lost on them.

“We're playing pretty good baseball, but we need to do a better job with guys in scoring position,” Carlos Lee said. “We're getting a lot of hits, but it's been hard to get a hit with somebody on.

“We still need to do a better job hitting with people on base. And I think that's going to take care of it, because the pitching's been doing a great job.”

The Astros stretched their winning streak to four straight with Friday's 3-1 win over the Cubs.

Rest for Pence

Hunter Pence was kept out of the lineup for rest purposes despite the outfielder hitting .329 with five homers and 15 RBIs over the previous 21 games.

“He's played 25 days in a row,” manager Brad Mills said. “But I told him, ‘Don't shut it down. You're going to get in at some point, probably.' ”

Odds and ends

Righthander Evan Englebrook cleared waivers and has been outrighted to Class AAA Round Rock. Englebrook was removed from the 40-man roster earlier in the week to make room for reliever Casey Daigle. … The Astros own the highest percentage of wins via comebacks in the majors this season with 13 of club's 21, according to STATS.

He said it

“We have the budget capability to take the best player available with each of our picks. We're not drafting, ‘signable players;' we're drafting the best players available at the time.” – Astros general manager Ed Wade, on whether having five of the top 90 picks in Monday's first-year draft presents a challenge from a financial standpoint.

Attendance watch

• Friday: 28,784.

• 2010 season (through 32 home games): 813,091.

• 2009 season (through 32 home games): 923,753.

• Behind: 110,662.

• 2010 average: 26,309.

• 2009 average: 28,867.

Coming up

Righthander Roy Oswalt (3-7, 2.78 ERA), who had his streak of consecutive quality starts end at 10 his last time out, battles the Cubs' Ryan Dempster (3-5, 3.72).